Let the sun shine in

Now available to the public, the records that took a lawsuit to get released.

Awhile back Anonymous at SoHum Parlance wrote "Please explain in a bit more detail exactly what was withheld from you; I'd really like to know." It was quite frustrating, but I had to write, "my counsel instructs me not to say anything about the case for now." Seemed like an odd response from someone asking the City to be more open. But that is what happens when you enter lawsuit land.

I so wanted to avoid uttering those words that I spent hours researching and then writing a letter to explain to the City that the California Public Records Act, State Constitution and the courts all agree that they should share with me the information they were gathering on using the underutilized Vancil reservoir instead of building a new tank 1/4mile away at Sewart Street . The final response: "we do not know of any reports or items held or retained by the City as requested."

Despite my derisive "lawsuit land" comment above, I'm proud to live in a country that has a court system that allows for challenges to questionable practices by government officials. Perhaps one sticking point was that the City didn't understand what I meant by "consultant or staff reports regarding the investigation of using the existing Vancil Street reservoir for zone1 water storage." All I can say to that is I'm glad I have a sense of humor and a belief in the ability of people to change.

Now, back to those public records. All this was so that hopefully I would be the last to hit a brick wall at City Hall. The writer mentioned above is right not all city records are public, but most of them are.
And I was so happy about making whatever was in that envelope I picked up last Friday available to the public I immediately went over and had them scanned into a pdf file. Joke was on me, I discovered I couldn't post a pdf file directly on FortunaCitizen, or at least if it is possible I couldn't figure out how. Luckily, after much trial and error, I talked to my son. He pointed me in the right direction and after more trial and error the records are there, where ever 'there' is. And you can see them, too because they are public records.
The link requires a google account. Don't have one? It is easy and free, or fortuna.sunshine@yahoo.com will be happy to email pdf file to you; please use "released records" for email subject.